Kerr also had some great assistants. The year the Mavs won it, they had Casey and Stotts as the top assistants. Carlisle hasn't sniffed success since they left (the talent shuffle has hurt too). If ours were great, other teams would be knocking down their door to hire them. They aren't bad, but McHale needs another head coaching material assistant on his bench. If the Coogs don't hire Sampson or the Nets don't hire Hollins, might be looking at better results for the Rockets too.
I'm not as anti Mchale as I used to be. I thought we had the talent to reach the second round last year and the Blazers destroyed us, even before then our defense was horrendous and the guys were unorganized. But hey we made it to the WCF's this year so I backed off a little. I still believe a coaching change would've propelled us into the finals this year, but there is really no way to prove that. I'm just happy that people can take a look at this thread and see that coaching actually does matter. For some reason most of this board was under the assumption that the coach you choose doesn't matter and that couldn't be farther from the truth.
They had an easy road, but GS was not a fluke team. They won with great internal development, which you have to credit the coaching staff for. Curry, Thompson, Green, and Barnes all got a lot better, and GS made the commitment to an extreme 3pt-heavy style that only the Rockets and Spurs had been previously willing to embrace. Rockets will have the talent to contend with them next year. Still, they and everyone else will need to come up with some creative strategies to knock them off the throne.
Steve Kerr has a high basketball feel/IQ to the game, but Warriors biggest minus for this upcoming season is the lost of Alvin Gentry imo. Let's see how Kerr does without his top assistant. (Warriors will be targeted and studied since they are the champs, it will be a lot harder to defend the title)
